Nonprofit takes on gun advocates with satirical video

The nonprofit group States United to Prevent Gun Violence produced an advertisement on the evolution of gun control laws. (Source: YouTube)

(RNN) - The gun control advocacy group States United to Prevent Gun Violence produced an advertisement taking on gun control laws, releasing the video before the U.S. Senate voted on gun control.

The video begins with a terrifying dramatization of a disgruntled employee entering a busy workplace and opening fire - with a musket. He misses his first target, then has to stop and reload as everyone runs away.

It ends with the message, "Guns have changed - shouldn't our gun laws?"

The ad campaign, released on YouTube April 15 - two days before the U.S. senate voted down the bipartisan gun control bill, directs viewers to the group's website where they can electronically sign a petition calling for background checks, a ban on assault weapons, and a limit on the capacity of ammunition magazines.

The nation's biggest gun lobby had its own way of getting the message out.

In early April, the NRA commissioned a task force called the National School Shield. In the 225-page report, the group announced eight recommendations to reduce violent crimes involving guns on school campuses.

Among them: state laws to allow school employees to carry guns on campus, training for those employees, and federal funding for more defensive resources for schools, such as armed guards.